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Harlem in Disorder: A Spatial History of How Racial Violence Changed in 1935

Fred Campbell assaulted twice

As Fred Campbell drove up 7th Avenue at about 12.30AM on March 20 his car was twice hit by bricks. Campbell, a thirty-one-year-old black man who owned two barber's shops in Harlem was on his way to pick up the day's receipts from the shops. Stopped at the traffic light at 121st Street, he noticed "an unusual number of patrolmen and policemen out with riot guns." Driving toward 122nd street, a brick hit and shattered the rear window of his car. Campbell heard more crashes and shots being fired, and saw store windows shattering on 7th Avenue and police trying to disperse crowds. Further up 7th Avenue, near 123rd Street, another brick hit his car. neither attack injured Campbell. Looking around he saw other cars, driven by whites, with windows shattered, and store windows shattered as far north as 127th Street.

Campbell described his experience in a statement given at the offices of the Bi-Racial Commission, after being referred there by Mr Delaney. The statement is a summary of what he said, not a transcript, filed in the papers of the MCCH. Information about Campbell appeared in the New York Amsterdam News, which published a story on a third barber's shop he opened at 2132 7th Avenue.

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